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Social Work in a Very Rural Place: A Study of Practitioners in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan Contemporary Rural Social Work Journal Volume 4 Number 1 2012 Article 6 Fall 9-5-2012 Social Work in a Very Rural Place: A Study of Practitioners in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan Paul Force-Emery Mackie MSW, PhD Minnesota State University, Mankato Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.murraystate.edu/crsw Part of the Social Work Commons This Feature Article is brought to you for free and open access by Murray State's Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Contemporary Rural Social Work Journal by an authorized editor of Murray State's Digital Commons. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Recommended Citation Mackie, Paul Force-Emery MSW, PhD (2012) "Social Work in a Very Rural Place: A Study of Practitioners in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan," Contemporary Rural Social Work Journal: Vol. 4 : No. 1 , Article 6. Available at: https://digitalcommons.murraystate.edu/crsw/vol4/iss1/6 http://www.murraystate.edu/?utm_source=digitalcommons.murraystate.edu%2Fcrsw%2Fvol4%2Fiss1%2F6&utm_medium=PDF&utm_campaign=PDFCoverPages http://www.murraystate.edu/?utm_source=digitalcommons.murraystate.edu%2Fcrsw%2Fvol4%2Fiss1%2F6&utm_medium=PDF&utm_campaign=PDFCoverPages https://digitalcommons.murraystate.edu/crsw?utm_source=digitalcommons.murraystate.edu%2Fcrsw%2Fvol4%2Fiss1%2F6&utm_medium=PDF&utm_campaign=PDFCoverPages https://digitalcommons.murraystate.edu/crsw?utm_source=digitalcommons.murraystate.edu%2Fcrsw%2Fvol4%2Fiss1%2F6&utm_medium=PDF&utm_campaign=PDFCoverPages https://digitalcommons.murraystate.edu/crsw/vol4?utm_source=digitalcommons.murraystate.edu%2Fcrsw%2Fvol4%2Fiss1%2F6&utm_medium=PDF&utm_campaign=PDFCoverPages https://digitalcommons.murraystate.edu/crsw/vol4/iss1?utm_source=digitalcommons.murraystate.edu%2Fcrsw%2Fvol4%2Fiss1%2F6&utm_medium=PDF&utm_campaign=PDFCoverPages https://digitalcommons.murraystate.edu/crsw/vol4/iss1/6?utm_source=digitalcommons.murraystate.edu%2Fcrsw%2Fvol4%2Fiss1%2F6&utm_medium=PDF&utm_campaign=PDFCoverPages https://digitalcommons.murraystate.edu/crsw?utm_source=digitalcommons.murraystate.edu%2Fcrsw%2Fvol4%2Fiss1%2F6&utm_medium=PDF&utm_campaign=PDFCoverPages http://network.bepress.com/hgg/discipline/713?utm_source=digitalcommons.murraystate.edu%2Fcrsw%2Fvol4%2Fiss1%2F6&utm_medium=PDF&utm_campaign=PDFCoverPages https://digitalcommons.murraystate.edu/crsw/vol4/iss1/6?utm_source=digitalcommons.murraystate.edu%2Fcrsw%2Fvol4%2Fiss1%2F6&utm_medium=PDF&utm_campaign=PDFCoverPages mailto:
[email protected] Social Work in a Very Rural Place: A Study of Practitioners in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan Paul Force-Emery Mackie, MSW, PhD Minnesota State University, Mankato Abstract. This study focuses on characteristics, challenges, and benefits of practicing social work in the Upper Peninsula (UP) of Michigan. Using a mixed-methods design, data were analyzed to determine demographic descriptors, seek differences between groups, and learn why social workers pursue and remain in social service employment in the UP. In addition, challenges and benefits of rural practice and perceptions of living and working in this region are addressed. Quantitatively, differences were found between younger and older social workers regarding where they currently live and where they grew up, and whether or not they were raised in a rural location. Qualitative findings suggest that professional challenges to practice include responding to the effects of persistent poverty and unemployment, lack of specialty care for children and families, and inadequate transportation. Benefits of practice include quality community experiences, proximity to familial systems, and professional connectedness. Keywords: labor force, pragmatic analysis, rural social work Michigan’s Upper Peninsula (UP) is a geographically remote and isolated region of the United States comprised of 15 counties. Bordered on the north by Lake Superior and south by Lakes Michigan and Huron, it is a landmass approximately equal to the states of Rhode Island, Delaware, Connecticut, and New Jersey combined. However, the UP contains a population of only about 299,000 people spread across 16,420 square miles (US Census, 2011a). The population density of the UP ranges from a low of 4.3 people per square mile in Keweenaw County, to a high of 35.8 in Dickinson County, and three of the 15 counties are designated “frontier,” meaning, they contain fewer than seven people per square mile (see Ciarlo & Zelarney, 2000). The UP represents one-third of Michigan’s land mass, but contains only 3% of the state’s population (Ulrich, 2010). This is a big, sparsely populated place and it is difficult to identify a more rural place in the Eastern United States. If the UP were a state, it would be the only one in the union 100% rural. Along with geographic uniqueness, the UP is historically distinctive as well. In the late 1800s through the early 1900s, large numbers of European immigrants came to work in the lumbering and mining industries (DeMark, 1997; Loukinen, 1997), and these influences remain embedded within the sub-culture today. Natural resource extraction continues to shape the economy and the people, and has evolved to become part of the fabric of the region which may be defined by boom and bust economies, a sense of communion with the land, and a set of shared experiences. Today, this composite of people (commonly called “Yoopers”) continue to live in a region geographically and politically isolated, harsh in climate, and often impoverished. Mackie, Contemporary Rural Social Work, Vol. 4, 2012 63 1 Mackie: Social Work in a Very Rural Place Published by Murray State's Digital Commons, 2018 Many Yoopers depend on social services to meet basic needs (Hilton & DeJong, 2010; Hoyum, 2009; Prusi, 2011a, 2011b). But who are the social workers of the Upper Peninsula providing these services? What are the challenges and benefits of practicing here? What might we learn from them to better understand social service labor force issues in other extremely rural areas? The purpose of this paper is to investigate challenges and benefits of social work practice in a highly isolated region with the expectation that these findings can advance the knowledge of rural practice across a broader landscape. Using a mixed-methods research design, questions were asked regarding why social workers work in this area, how they came to be there, why they work in the UP, the challenges they face, and benefits they experience. Literature Review Social Issues in the UP A review of the literature indicates that the existence of social problems in the UP is comparable to social problems found in other locations (Connell & Kole, 1999; Hilton & DeJong, 2010; Ulrich, 2010). For example, the overall 2009 UP poverty rates are comparable to the State of Michigan’s levels (15.8% and 16.1%, respectfully), and higher than the national average of 14.3% (U.S. Census Bureau, 2011a). Furthermore, family poverty rates in the UP with children under the age of 18 in the household are problematic, with 17% of these families living below the poverty line between 2005 and 2009, which is higher than Michigan (16.4%) as well as national (15.3%) averages. Perhaps more troubling are the poverty rates among single-headed (predominately female) households with children under 18. Here, the rate of poverty rises to 46%, compared to state (40.6%) and national (37.1%) rates (U.S. Census Bureau, 2011b). Clearly, poverty is a problem across this region, especially among single-headed households with children. Transportation is challenging in the UP. Based on where one resides, the distance to a Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) can be as close as approximately 60 miles (Menominee, Michigan to Green Bay, Wisconsin) to as far as 110 miles (Ironwood, Michigan to Duluth, Minnesota). But this does not tell the broader story—these are distances to MSA’s in other states and from the borders of the UP, not major population centers in Michigan or from the interior of the UP. A resident of the region can be as close as 235 miles or as far as 540 miles from the state capital and up to 600 miles to Michigan’s largest city, Detroit. For social workers needing to travel for employment purposes (e.g., trainings, continuing education, etc.) to more urban locations, these distances can be challenging. Homelessness in the UP is problematic. A study of homelessness was conducted by Hilton and DeJong (2010) who identified several different types of homelessness ranging from brief and episodic to long term and chronic. These authors learned that many of the participants were families with children struggling to find a way out of this precarious state. They conclude that homelessness in the UP is widespread but at the same time, many homeless families are reluctant to leave. But who are these Yoopers generally, and why do people live and stay here? Ulrich (2010) conducted a review of Upper Peninsula residents and identified many findings. For example, Ulrich found that whereas 88% of the 1,008 Yoopers surveyed stated that they plan to stay in the UP for the next five years, the overall population of the region continues to decline Social Work in a Very Rural Place: A Study of Practitioners in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan 64 2 Contemporary Rural Social Work Journal, Vol. 4 [2018], No. 1, Art. 6 https://digitalcommons.murraystate.edu/crsw/vol4/iss1/6 annually. Among those stating they might leave in the future, the most common reasons were lack of employment and high energy costs—each an indicator of economics (as opposed to life- style, political processes, attitudes, or belief systems). Ulrich (2010) also found that about 80% of adults stated they would advise teenagers to leave the UP to seek better job and educational opportunities. This creates a conundrum—if the majority of adults believe that to have a better life youth must leave the UP, and if those youth do so, the region risks experiencing a “brain drain” with each graduating high school class. This represents a loss of human capital that is at least difficult, and perhaps impossible, to recapture over time. Rural Social Worker Supply and Availability Mackie and Simpson (2007) conducted a study comparing undergraduate social work students originally from rural and urban areas in Minnesota and Michigan, seeking differences between groups regarding where students grew up and their interest in working in a rural area upon graduation. Findings suggest that students who grew up in rural areas were significantly more likely to seek employment in a rural area compared to those from urban areas. This study included a qualitative component to learn why respondents may feel the way that they do. Rural-raised participants stated that they prefer the quality of life rural areas provide, regional familiarity, and an attachment to a lifestyle they understand. Additionally, many rural students felt that they would have greater employment opportunities in rural areas as they perceive employment in urban areas as more competitive (see also Phillips, Quinn, & Heitkamp, 2010). In related research, Mackie (2007) compared rural and urban social workers from a national sample, and found that those practicing in